Interviewing the best of the Storytelling Community.

Category: Healing Storytelling

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I have watched the ceremony of the resolutions come and go through the years. I have done it – made a list of resolutions that I can stick to! Rarely has any of those resolutions lasted more than a month. In my opinion this ceremony serves two purposes – 1) It causes us to lose sight of our past successes and 2) It brings to the forefront the isolation we feel in our failure to keep our written goals. In short this ceremony appears to leave us powerless in the face of the many hidden traditions and cultural assumptions of western culture.

What traditions and cultural assumptions of western culture do I speak of? Why the most insidious and sneaky ones of course – that of guilt, shame, fear, blame, anger, individualism, silence and many more… Each of these problems has a long history with the Ceremony of the Resolutions and each knows just what to do to derail any serious attempt to shake up their rule of our lives, our families’ lives and our cultural narratives.

As a narrative therapist I see it all the time. People love the idea – the resolution they reach for and they fail. Without the foundation they tumble and fall back into the sticky, sneaky ways of the problems. How do you find a new direction without setting yourself up for failure? Well it’s really simple – just notice that your already doing it.

Your future has already arrived in the present moment. Instead of creating a list of things you want to accomplish in the future, create a list of ways you are already accomplishing and some of things you want to do in the future. Say what? I mean it – sit down and try it right now.

Eric James Wolf
Recently I asked the storytell listserv a resource provided by the National Storytelling Network a simple question -When I say LOVE – what story, myth, fable or fairy tale first comes to mind?

Below are all the responses that I got to my question…

Beverly Nelson Comer Cinderella was the first story to come to my mind.Carolyn Stearns Cinderella, I even make conversational references like home before my coach became a pumpkinBrian Fox Ellis Baucus and Philomen, the Greek myth I most often perform at weddings!Liz Nichols I’m kind of an anti-sentimentalist, so I like the myth of Artemis and Orion – it doesn’t have a happy ending – especially because Orion is clearly visible in the sky in February.Carol Connolly The Blue Rose
. Read more »

Press Play to hear Odds Bokin speak on Storytelling in the Bardic Tradition on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

Odds Bodkin Writes…
Bardic storytelling–that is, spoken words with live music–is a tradition that dates back to Homer and more deeply into almost all shamanic traditions. Homer plucked a lyre, scholars believe, and recited The Iliad and The Odyssey with character voices. Shamanic traditions have used music with spoken narrative to transport audiences ever since local history and the religious impulse demanded human expression. Read more »

Press Play to hear Storyteller Diane Edgecomb talk about place based nature storytelling on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

Diane writes…
In this interview with Eric, I speak about how the various elements of nature mythology can be an enlivening force both for those who hear you tell and for your own journey into this ancient form of meaning. Storytelling a landscape and being storied by it is one of the most intimate and rewarding nature journeys one can take. Read more »

Press Play to hear David Gonzalez talks about how he almost had a storytelling event on Broadway on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

David Gonzalez writes…

The Way of the Artist

What compels someone to commit themselves to the absurdly uncertain, and certainly absurd, road of being an artist? It is a wonder that so many of us actually make the decision to take a detour and get “off the grid” when so many viable possibilities, alternatives and conventions surround us. Sometimes it is ego pure and simple, but that is rare, and often passing. The truth is, while each of us has a story, at the root of that story is the overwhelming necessity to matter to the world through our capacity to imagine, create, and wonder. The artists I admire have found the balance of personal expression and service to a common good – an idiosyncratic voice calling out to the world.

Storytelling on Broadway (almost)

The New Victory Theater on Times Square has exactly 499 seats, a number calculated to render it exactly one seat short of Read more »

Press Play to hear Angela Lloyd talk about the Listening Way of the Storyteller on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

Angela Lloyd writes:

Eric Wolf and I met for this interview in the lobby of the Warner Center Marriot on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 7 AM. We were attending the bi-annual National Storytelling Network Conference in Woodland Hills, Ca.
I mention this so you can see the landscape, and note the time, for these are details that I value as a listener and worker of the word.

What you will find here as the conversation unfolds is a dialogue focused on a number of themes close to my heart.

1. How the teller listens in various ways to the story they are telling.

2. How the structure of a story plays a large part in understanding its path.